First-class Facilities Remove The Responsibility Of Upkeep

Sun Herald

Sunday April 1, 2007

By Michelle Singer

PERHAPS inspired by the homemade huts and vegetable patches of Nimbin in the 1980s, commune-type developments are becoming popular in more sophisticated societies.

Community title projects, where people own their own property but share common areas and facilities, have come into fashion throughout NSW, as time constraints and financial pressures on maintaining property assets have become too much.

More than 1500 projects around NSW operate as community title properties, offering a diverse range of amenities, with maintenance shared among all residents.

Allam Group general manager Bruce Roberts, developer of Pavilion on the Park, said such projects meant people could participate in the community as much or as little as they wanted.

"Many people don't want to maintain large gardens and community title offers an alternative to that - it offers the best of both worlds," he said.

"They can have a high-quality house and home and first-class facilities such as swimming pools, a clubhouse, walkways and cycleways where children can play."

The 91-dwelling Pavilion on the Park project has a higher density than usual, but Mr Roberts said homes on smaller blocks had park-side locations.

He said the "ambitious" project aimed to give residents a sense of pride in the development.

"We found there was some resistance to the concept of community title development but once people bought into the estate and lived in it, they loved it," he said. In the past decade community title projects have become common around the inner west with urban renewal turninbg former industrial land into large, master-planned communities.

Among them is the Sydney Olympic site at Newington, Abbotsford Cove and the $1.2 billion Breakfast Point project.

Rosecorp managing director Bryan Rose, developer of Breakfast Point, said 50 per cent of the 1865 dwellings at the 52-hectare Cabarita complex were complete. He said 98 per cent of facilities were complete and were a major attraction for buyers of all ages.

Breakfast Point will eventually be home to 5000 residents, who will have shared access to 14 hectares of waterfront parkland, the newly opened Breakfast Point Country Club, village green, community hall, shops and child-care centre.

The country club has a library, meeting room, sports centre, 25-metre heated outdoor and indoor leisure pool, five tennis courts, putting green, spa, steam room and sauna.

A marina - subject to approval - and a couple of smaller parks are the only facilities yet to be completed.

"People want facilities and more than what they get on a normal block of land but no one wants to look after them," Mr Rose said.

Residents paid strata fees plus a community levy to maintain the facilities, which had turned out to be cheaper than originally planned.

Costs were based on land values but owners of some two-bedroom units, for example, paid less than $75 a quarter in community levies.

Pavilion far too good to turn down

MOVING from Baulkham Hills to Prestons was a priority for Biju Cherian and his wife Kessia Koshy.

As the parents of three girls aged from three to 11, education was the driving force as to where the family would live.

A decision to send them to William Carey Christian School meant the family inspected about 30 houses before deciding to buy into Pavilion on the Park.

The 90-dwelling estate had everything Mr Biju wanted.

Not only was the house new, the estate was a "community title", something Mr Biju considered favourable because of the amenities and the level at which they would be maintained.

"Somebody suggested we look at the Allam homes at Pavilion on the Park and we came here and saw five or six homes within the development," he said.

"After about 45 minutes we decided this was the home we wanted and I put down a deposit."

As only about half the homes have been completed the family is not yet required to pay the quarterly community title payment, which covers the cost of maintaining the common facilities.

When the remaining houses are built, the family, along with the rest of the residents, will pay about $200 a quarter to have the pool, clubhouse, barbecue area and open spaces maintained.

© 2007 Sun Herald

Back to News Index | Back to Home